Former inmate slain on St. Croix
Published: August 7, 2012
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ST. CROIX - Police are investigating a shooting that left a 28-year-old man dead late Sunday night.
Emergency dispatchers received a number of calls about 11:30 p.m. Sunday night from residents who reported shots fired in the Mon Bijou area near the bus shanty, V.I. Police spokeswoman Melody Rames said Monday morning.
Officers responded and found Sabree Spencer suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his body, Rames said. Emergency medical technicians on the scene did not detect any signs of life on the victim when they arrived and he was pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.
Spencer had a criminal history including incarceration for five years at Golden Grove on a burglary conviction in 2006. In 2007, he was sentenced to an additional two years for his involvement in a stabbing inside the prison. Just before his release this year, he was arrested on a charge of introducing narcotics into the prison.
Because the investigation is ongoing, police will not make any comment on the possibility of the murder being a result of retaliation for any previous crime or for any past homicide, according to Rames.
Monday, the scene was still visibly tragic, with a medium size blood splatter on the concrete near a lamp post where police suspected Spencer may have been when he was shot. Children played in the area riding bicycles and walking just feet from the spot where Spencer died hours before.
Spencer's shooting is the territory's 38th homicide, including six vehicular homicides, this year.
Anyone with information can call detectives at 712-6077, 712-6037 or 911 or the Crime Stoppers USVI tip line at 1-800-222-8477.
- Contact reporter Fiona Stokes at 714-9149 or email fstokes@dailynews.vi.
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